Tiger Beer (a brand under the Heineken Asia Pacific umbrella) has teamed with MIT-spinoff Graviky Labs and agency Marcel Sydney to launch Air-Ink, an innovative range of pens, markers and spray cans made from air pollution.
To create Air-Ink, unique devices were developed to capture soot from vehicles’ exhausts. These were fitted to trucks, ferries, chimneys and even cranes around Hong Kong and India. The captured pollutants were then purified and turned into safe, reliable ink for everyday use.
Overall, 150 liters of Air-Ink have been produced, approximating to 2,500 hours worth of typical diesel car emissions.
A range of Air-Ink products were given to emerging Asian street artists such as Bao Ho, Caratoes, Xeme and Kristopher H, who used them to create spectacular murals and advertising on the streets of Hong Kong.
The technology and what artists have done with the ink are chronicled in this short film directed by Joel Kefali of Goodoil Films for Marcel.
“The streets are not only a great place to drink Tiger, they’re also the place where creativity, ideas and passion are born,” said Mie-Leng Wong, director of International Brands at Tiger Beer, Heineken Asia Pacific. “By using our entrepreneurial spirit to repurpose pollution into ink–the lifeblood of creativity–we’re giving creative people the tools to enhance their streets, and empowering inventors like Anirudh to take small but impactful actions against air pollution.”
“It was important that the ink itself had to be a high-quality product that artists could use for real street art,” said Scott Huebscher, ECD at Marcel Sydney. “Even the animations in our film were made with Air-Ink.”
The initiative is part of Tiger Beer’s mission to inspire people to “uncage the Tiger inside” to take action for what they are passionate about. Tiger plans to launch more Air-Ink initiatives in other markets across Asia in 2017.
Currently, Air-Ink is not commercially available but Tiger is working with Graviky Labs to manufacture more for future projects.
